Busy, Busy, Busy!

What a busy month it has been! We have been busy planning and celebrating mom and dad's 30th anniversary, doing report cards, balancing checkbooks, and working on other items for school as well. I had hoped that by having a blog I would be able to keep people updated more often, but I have been bad about doing it the past couple of months. My goal is to be better the next few months.

Aubrey is growing and changing all the time. She is now 19 1/2 months old! I can hardly believe that she is so big already! At her 18 month doctor's appointment, she was 31 1/2 inches long and 20 pounds 9 ounces. She is still a little peanut, but the doctor says that she looks great. She is becoming more and more independent all the time. She likes to do things for herself. For example, tonight she had to put her dirty socks in the basket and her diaper in her diaper pail. Her favorite words are daddy, mama, and no. If you ask her a question, she almost always says no even if she means yes, so you have to try and figure out what she really means. She also loves to help. If you give her a job to do or have her help you, she loves it! She is definitely growing up and getting bigger.

Aubrey loves butter. She will lick the butter off of a cracker and then want more!

Aubrey sitting on her little potty for the first time. She goes every once in a while and tries every night before her bath.

Making smores over our grill with the aunts.

Aubrey riding in the combine with Daddy.

Aubrey loves to read books. When I'm making supper, she will go and get books to read and then sit on the floor in front of the kitchen sink. It's really cute!

One of Aubrey's favorite foods is cheese. She usually eats a piece every night.

One of Aubrey's baby dolls has a pacifier. Aubrey decided to walk around with it in her mouth.

Another of Aubrey's favorite things to do while I am making supper is to play with the spice rack. She loves rearranging them.

I am still feeling good. There's the tiredness, but that comes with being pregnant, not going to bed early enough, and having to get up early. Plus, Aubrey's idea of sleeping in on the weekends is 7:30 a.m., no matter how late I put her to bed. I am almost six months (24 weeks) along. The baby moves all the time - a lot more than I remember Aubrey doing! We had our ultrasound about a month ago, but we didn't find out what we're having. I want to be surprised, so we are waiting to find out until the baby is born. I will be happy either way.

Here is the baby's profile.

Here is the baby's face with the arms right next it.

Here is me this past Sunday. I am finally starting to show a little.

We had a surprise party for my parents the first weekend in October. Their 30th anniversary is November 26th, so we wanted to have something special for them. We were able to all get together for a weekend, including all of my siblings, my dad's sisters, and my mom's parents. It was a fun, and busy, weekend!

Grandpa and Aubrey

Maximus and Aubrey eating cake.

The family

I have been informed by some of my sisters that I need to update the blog and add new pictures. I intended to do this last week, but had other things that needed to get done first. So I am finally just now getting new pictures up.

School started August 21st. It is going pretty good. I only have fifteen children and an aide to help with the teaching load. Things have finally started to get into a routine, and my aide is getting the hang of how I want things done. The hardest part is getting up in the morning. I am just so tired! I need to go to bed earlier, but that is easier said than done. The other hard part is the school work. I have twice as much grading and lesson planning to do as last year, so it is definitely more challenging. Aubrey is also getting into the hang of our school schedule. At first, she cried every morning that I left, but she now doesn't seem to mind going to the babysitter's. She plays with the other kids and eats, and then I am there to pick her up. The hardest part for her is staying awake on the ride home. If I let her fall asleep, she won't take a nap and she needs to considering she is getting up so much earlier. So we sing songs and she eats part of my lunch. It helps keep me awake on the drive home too. :)

Aubrey is now 18 months old, which is so hard to believe. She is definitely not a baby now. She is a little girl. Her vocabulary continues to grow as she is beginning to say more words. She now says bye-bye, mama, fishy, and all the others too. Her personality is very similar to mine - she can be quite stubborn. She is also very particular about where things go. She loves to help and loves to have jobs or things to do for you. I love that! She has also started to show her displeasure by fake crying. I have to try really hard not to laugh, because it is hilarious sometimes! All in all, life is definitely never boring around our house!

Aubrey helps sweep the floor with her new little broom.

Aubrey loves to talk on the fax machine phone. She thinks that it is the greatest thing!

When we went to my last doctor's appointment, the nurse gave Aubrey some stickers. She proceeded to put them all over her shirt and even one on her cheek! She was pretty proud of herself!

She can now do the harder puzzle by herself.

She loves to play with the big Legos that we bought at a garage sale. She loves to stack them and make trains out of the cars. They are currently one of her favorite toys.

Last weekend, we went to St. Louis to celebrate Maximus' first birthday. Aubrey and Max played a lot better this time than during our vacation together. Maximus was intrigued by her and they both wanted whatever the other was playing with. But at least they were on the ground together and Aubrey wasn't running away from him!

Aubrey, Grandpa, Grandma, and Maximus walking at the park.

Maximus and Aubrey playing with Grandpa

Aubrey carrying a ball with Grandpa

Posing for a picture with Grandpa and aunts Hannah and Jenna

Hannah, Danielle, and Jenna came this past weekend for a visit. It was nice to see them all, especially Dani, as we hadn't seen her since the middle of July. We had a good time with them. Aubrey loved all of the attention that she received from her aunts. She seemed a little lost this afternoon once they had all left, but decided that being with mom and dad wasn't too bad either.

Surprise, Surprise!

The past few weeks have been very busy for us. I have been working a few days a week at school trying to get my classroom ready. The first two weeks that I went Aubrey went with me. She did excellent! My room had messes all over, but she played very well and I was able to get a lot done. This week, I took her to the babysitter again, so that she can get used to being there. She has done pretty well, although she cries when I leave and sporadically cries throughout the morning. This year, it is easier for me to leave her (I am more used to it), while it is much harder for Aubrey, as she realizes what is happening. I am confidant that once school starts and she gets into a regular routine, she will be fine.

The most exciting thing that has happened is that Calvin and I are going to have another baby! We are very excited about it. I am due February 14th, which is a great date, considering it is Valentine's Day. What a great gift that would be! I tell Aubrey about the baby that is in my tummy, but every time I talk about the baby, she thinks that I am talking about her baby doll. It's pretty funny. She still loves her baby. She carries it everywhere, and even sleeps with it at night. She gives it kisses and hugs too. It's very cute!

Cheese!

This week Aubrey surprised me by petting a cat! This is a very big step for her considering the fact that up to this point she has been scared of them. We went out to the barn to feed them, and as I was putting food in their pans, she walked over to a cat that was eating and started to pet it. I was shocked! She stood there and continued to pet it for several minutes. She touched the cat's body, tail, and ears. She can now say kitty, although it sounds like "titty", and she knows what a cat says ("mow"). She can also tell you that a cow says moo, a bear says roar, and a sheep says baa. Aubrey's vocabulary hasn't really changed too much, but she is gradually adding some words, like flower and fish.

Aubrey has begun to climb on things. She can now get on the couch all by herself. She also sat on the toilet seat and got on a kitchen chair. She has never been much of a climber until now. She also likes to stand on the side of her crib (when she is down on the ground). I have to keep a closer watch on her now. She's turning into quite the little monkey!

Aubrey is so proud. She got on the couch all by herself!

We went swimming this week to try to stay cool. Aubrey had a blast shoveling water into a bowl and drinking water from the shovel. She loved it!

Fun at the Fair

This past week Aubrey has been feeling much better. She is pretty much back to normal, except for a cough and slightly runny nose. I have been beginning to think about and look at school stuff. This week I would like to work on a bulletin board and possibly go to school and start rearranging furniture. I would rather get things done now, so that I can have a little bit of time before school starts.

Denny and Eileen finally have some sweet corn ready, so Aubrey got to eat sweet corn for the first time on Friday. She did really good. At first, she wasn't really sure how to eat it, but once I showed her how, she did very well. She held it by herself and ate about one fourth of it. She ate small sections all around the ear.

The fair began this week also. Thursay night was the demolition derby. Calvin wanted to take Aubrey to the demo, but I wasn't too sure about the loud noise. I decided that if I took ear plugs for her, it would be okay. Aubrey absolutely loved it! She loved watching the cars and would clap her hands when they came out. She did really well and kept her ear plugs in almost the entire time. We went to the fair Saturday and today also. I told Calvin that this weekend was my break from cooking. :) We took Aubrey around to see the animals, which she liked as long as you were holding her. She wanted nothing to do with petting them though. It was nice to spend some time together as a family and to be able to visit with people we haven't seen in a while.

Being sick is no fun!

The past week has been pretty rough for Aubrey. Last Thursday, Aubrey came down with a high fever of 102.5. She had that all day, except for when I gave her Tylenol, so I took her to the doctor right away Friday morning. The doctor said everything looked fine. She thought that maybe Aubrey was fighting something viral. She said to just wait it out and see. So I kept giving her medicine to keep her fever down. She ran a high fever all day Friday. By Saturday, it was down to around 101.5 and by Saturday night it was down to 99.0. Those days, Aubrey was just miserable. She basically cried all day if you weren't holding her, except for those few times when the Tylenol kicked in and she felt a little better. I was so happy on Sunday to find that her fever had finally broke and she was in a much better mood. She played and didn't have to be held the entire day like before. She has been doing much better since. I don't know if she was just coming down with a cold, because now she has a cough and a runny nose, or what the deal was. I'm just glad she's doing better. We just have to work on sleeping through the night again. Of the past five nights, she has been up at least three times during four of those nights. It's definitely starting to wear on me!

You can tell that she finally feels better. She wanted to wear both of her hats at once.

When my mom and dad were here a couple of weeks ago, they helped me stain my deck. I did the floor again, because it needed a second coat. Yesterday, Aubrey and I finally were able to put things back on the deck and start using it again. I bought a new flower to replace one that had died, so Aubrey helped me plant it. She loves to shovel dirt and play in it! She also loves to water flowers. She can be such a great little helper.

Happy 4th of July!

My sister Danielle came yesterday to help us celebrate the 4th of July. It was nice to see her again. Aubrey was very excited to see her too. Calvin didn't have to work, so we went with his parents to the parade in Watseka. We got there shortly before the parade started and were able to get all set up before the parade reached us. Aubrey loved watching all of the police cars, fire engines, ambulances, and floats go by. She did great with all of the sirens - they didn't seem to affect her at all! She even got to pick up candy that people threw to us. (We decided next year we need to bring more kids with us so we can get more candy! :) After the parade, we all went out to eat at Monical's. It was yummy! We then came home and worked on cleaning our deck so that I can stain it this weekend.

Waiting for the parade to start

Picking up candy

Waving to the people going by

Family Vacation

On June 21st, Aubrey and I left for vacation with my family to Afton, Oklahoma. (Calvin and my sister Hannah were both unable to go because of work, but the rest of us went together.) We stayed on Grand Lake, which is the largest lake in Oklahoma. The scenery was beautiful - lots of rolling hills, trees, and pasture. We had a great time together and were able to relax along with doing some sight-seeing (mom's favorite thing to do!). Some of the highlights of the trip were:

• Aubrey running away from Maximus. He tried to use her several times as a support to stand up, which she didn't like. She also didn't like having to share her toys. :)


• Shopping at some local stores and flea markets. What great deals they had!


• Swimming! I love swimming, but I wasn't sure if Aubrey would as well. It turns out that she does. She had such a good time that I had to go and buy her a float so that I didn't have to hold her the entire time. (Nic and Ingrid also bought one for Maximus, because he loved swimming too.)


• Spending time together. It was so nice to spend time together without having to constantly be working on something.


• Seeing Har-Ber Village (an outdoor museum spanning the 1800s-1900s and taking a tour of the Pensacola Dam (the dam that was built to create Grand Lake).

All in all, it was a great trip. We returned home June 29th. Aubrey did pretty well in the car. She had her moments when she definitely got sick of her car seat, but singing really helped her to calm down. Thank God for VeggieTales!

Aubrey and I in front of some flowers at our resort.

Aubrey's new swim float

Aubrey and Maximus in front of a turbine at the Pensacola Dam.

Here is Aubrey reading some information about the Pensacola Dam.

Grandma and Aubrey swinging at the small park we found.